Men place juvenile girl in refrigerated trailer

On Friday July 13 at approximately 8:20 a.m., the California Highway Patrol (CHP) dispatch center notified the Mono County Sheriff’s Department of a possible child abduction that just occurred in the Bishop area. A caller told the CHP that two white males just placed a young female juvenile into the cargo area of a tractor trailer and proceeded northbound on U.S. 395.

Mono County deputies located the semi-truck on U.S. 395 near Benton Crossing Road and conducted a traffic stop on it. The deputies searched the locked refrigerated cargo trailer and located an 11-year-old female hiding amongst the loose cargo.

Inside the back of the truck

During the investigation it was determined that George Lewis Arciero age 52, a resident of Apple Valley, Calif. had taken his granddaughter to work with him for the day (the granddaughter was the juvenile located in the locked refrigerated cargo trailer).

While in Bishop Arciero picked up Jason Ray Jernigan, 33, a resident of Bishop, at which time they placed the female juvenile into the refrigerated cargo trailer and locked it prior to proceeding northbound out of the Bishop area.

Both Arciero and Jernigan were placed under arrest for child endangerment, and transported and booked into the Mono County Jail without incident. The case will be forwarded to the Mono County District Attorney’s office. The juvenile was released to Mono County Child Protective Services who will reunite the juvenile with her mother. –Press Release